COP16 - Cancun Mexico 2010 Archives

BK Delegation at the Climate Change Conference in Mexico

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Published: 02 December 2010

Daily reports from the Conference

Setting the Context:

This year's Climate Change Conference COP16 is being held in the beautiful 'Mexican Caribbean' state of Quintana Roo in the port of Morelos, south of Cancun. Our delegation is staying in a gorgeous beach house with unlimited vistas of the ocean where we are constantly accompanied by the sound of breaking waves on long sandy beaches. However, we are here to attend a conference with a busy schedule and so not too much time is spent at the house, but Amrit Vela and the morning sunrises are very special.

The Brahma Kumaris have an official observer status with an international delegation of twelve plus four local members, so we are seventeen in all. They are Sister Jayanti, head of the delegation; Luciana Ferraz, Brazil; Golo Pils from Germany/India; Sonja Ohlsson, Denmark, Julia Grindon-Welch, USA, Patricia Itergurri, Peru, Valerianne Bernard, Switzerland, Renaud Russell, France, Usha Jevan, South Africa, Pierro Musini, Italy; Carmen Barbacahno and Yolanda Moreno, Mexico and our other Mexican delegation is Vivienne von Son Guillot, Kitzia Wiess, Rocio Escorcia, and Raquel Pineda.

2nd Day Climate Change Conference - Tuesday 30th November

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Published: 03 December 2010

Cancun Messe

Half the delegation went to Cancum Messe, the exhibition and workshop center where the Brahma Kumaris have a stand. The afternoon was spent speaking to various people and exploring the area, where Governments, UN secretariat, UN agencies and NGOs are exhibiting together. Some of the governments have large exhibitions and Brazil has particularly wonderful stand, which as you enter, it is as if you are exploring the Amazon jungle full of sights and sounds. Later in the afternoon some of us took the 15 minute shuttle bus ride to the Moon Palace Hotel where the Government delegates were negotiating the main documents on mitigation, adaptation and finance. The hotel is huge, and has about 1,000 bedrooms where the delegates are staying and many meeting rooms where they are working. The main plenary hall seats, what looks like, over 2,000 people. When we were there, the representative from Bangladesh was speaking and the person sitting next to him was a scientist who that afternoon had visited our stand.

3rd Day — Climate Change Conference – Wednesday 1st December

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Published: 03 December 2010

Our delegation is now complete with the arrival of Sister Jayanti last night and Patricia Itergurri, from Peru arriving mid-morning. We also had an arrival and departure from our local centers, Raquel from Mexico City who departed and Rossy Rea who arrived from Tijuana (close to the USA boarder). After holding a meeting to brief Sister Jayanti and share news with each other from the previous day's activities, most of us set off for the day.

Cancun Masse (UN Exhibition and Side Events)

Interview at the Climate Change Studio. In order to channel the dynamic and engaging views of participants of COP16, the secretariat of UNFCCC has continued the "Climate Change Studio" (which was also present in Copenhagen last year and interviewed Sister Jayanti). Climate Change TV is a platform that provides the opportunity to be interviewed by a professional journalist on actions, solutions, observations and issues that impact climate change. Joachim Golo Pilz was interviewed by a British journalist.

Thursday 2nd December

BK Golo Pilz set off early in the morning for a live interview with Michelle Begue, Correspondent, Chinese TV Chinese Central Television where he shared how the Brahma Kumaris have been working successfully for the last fifteen years with renewable energies and that India had favorable conditions for successful implementation, as many villages still have little or no electrical connection and they would greatly benefit from such technology.

KlimaForum

We arrived around 10 am and all was quiet at KlimaForum because many of the hundred or so volunteers who attend many of the events wake up late. However, as soon as we entered grounds, Sister Jayanti was approached by Televisia an international television company, who asked: What was her message for the Climate Conference? Sister Jayanti answered that our message is to explain how human consciousness affects the world around us and also our larger environment.

6th and 7th Day - Climate Change Conference - Saturday and Sunday, 4th and 5th December

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Published: 08 December 2010

Saturday 4th December

Climate Change Village

A group of us accompanied Sister Jayanti, Golo Pilz and Patricia Itergurri for a presentation on Consciousness and Climate: A Confluence of Two Living Systems at the Climate change Village – this is the NGO Forum sponsored by the Mexican Federal Government. The area is a converted go-cart sports arena with large pavilions and huge stages that had been set up for evening entertainment. Our workshop was within one of these pavilions in a large sports arena.

We were first the audience to a presentation by a Mexican filmmaker called Juan Carlos Rulfo, La Medi a Luna Productions SA.C.V. It was very interesting what he had to say and it was a perfect lead into our workshop. He had made a film about the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of the families of Mexican people who had gone to other countries such as the US to earn money so that they could send it home. Many of these families felt they had been abandoned and felt very sad In making this film he discovered people need to be heard – today if want to be heard you have to do something extreme but the small things in individuals lives make up the reality of what is really going on.